Getting UNIX-Style Focus Follows Mouse on a Mac with AutoRaise

Ever since I started using a Mac, I kept wishing there were a feature like the one on Unix where simply moving the mouse cursor onto a window makes it active.

It is late in the day, but I finally came across a piece of software with a Focus Follows Mouse feature (AutoRaise).

Installing AutoRaise

The installation instructions offer a disk image, a Zip file and manual compilation, but the disk image was not supported, so I go with manual compilation from Git.

make install

$ git clone https://github.com/sbmpost/AutoRaise.git
$ cd AutoRaise
$ make CXXFLAGS="-DOLD_ACTIVATION_METHOD -DEXPERIMENTAL_FOCUS_FIRST" && make install

Privacy & Security

Enable AutoRaise in System Preferences → Privacy & Security

Configuration file

Create the file ~/.config/AutoRaise/config and write it as below
(Adjusting delay and focusDelay is pretty much all you need)

#AutoRaise config file
pollMillis=50
delay=1
focusDelay=0
warpX=0.5
warpY=0.1
scale=2.5
altTaskSwitcher=false
ignoreSpaceChanged=false
ignoreApps="App1,App2"
stayFocusedBundleIds="Id1,Id2"
disableKey="control"
mouseDelta=0.1

Parameters

Each parameter and its initial value

AutoRaise
  -pollMillis <20, 30, 40, 50, ...>
  -delay <0=no-raise, 1=no-delay, 2=50ms, 3=100ms, ...>
  -focusDelay <0=no-focus, 1=no-delay, 2=50ms, 3=100ms, ...>
  -warpX <0.5> -warpY <0.5> -scale <2.0>
  -altTaskSwitcher <true|false>
  -ignoreSpaceChanged <true|false>
  -ignoreApps "<App1,App2, ...>"
  -stayFocusedBundleIds "<Id1,Id2, ...>"
  -disableKey <control|option|disabled>
  -mouseDelta <0.1>
  -verbose <true|false>

Started with:
  * pollMillis: 50ms
  * delay: 0ms
  * focusDelay: disabled
  * warpX: 0.5, warpY: 0.1, scale: 2.5
  * altTaskSwitcher: false
  * ignoreSpaceChanged: false
  * ignoreApp: App1
  * ignoreApp: App2
  * stayFocusedBundleId: Id1
  * stayFocusedBundleId: Id2
  * disableKey: control
  * mouseDelta: 2.0
  * verbose: true

Launching it

Click AutoRaise.app in the Application folder to launch it
To have it start automatically, click the + in System Settings → Login Items → Open at Login and select AutoRaise

A side note

Better Touch Tool (BTT) had similar settings, but I could not find a complete automatic focus feature.
That said, combining AutoRaise with BTT’s move/resize-from-anywhere-in-the-window feature made things even more comfortable.

See also